In preparing for Low Sunday, that is, the Second Sunday of Easter, or as one of the wardens has reminded me, the Sunday after Easter when the choir is off (a very low state of affairs, indeed!), I realize that our world is full of a lot of doubting Thomases. I know I don't have to convince many of you of this, since we live in a country and during times where anything religious is held in suspicion or even demeaned by many people because it doesn't make sense.

I believe that the story of "Doubting Thomas", the gospel reading for Low Sunday, calls us to show the wounds of Christ to these numerous doubting Thomases. As Christians, that is, followers of the resurrected Christ, we have been called by our risen Lord show to the world the true face of Christ at any price - even that of our own lives. We are surrounded by so many living "Thomases" who will not believe in Christ until they put their own fingers into his wounds, and so we must show those wounds in ourselves.

Before anyone goes out and drives nails through feet and hands, or begins praying for a stigmata, I would like to suggest the way we can do this is by living the gospel each moment of our lives. Actually, we who follow the crucified and risen Christ must be crucified also: on the cross of faith, love and surrender.

In many ways, this is what Jesus spoke about when he said we must take up our cross and follow him. To follow Christ is enter into the struggle between our natural inclinations and the will of God, that is, living the gospel without compromise places us at the crux of the tremendous struggle between humanity's way of living and God's way of life. It is only in our total surrender to God's call to holiness that we can receive the shalom, or the peace and joy, that the risen Lord greeted his disciples with, and it is in this spiritual crucifixion and struggle that we receive our own wounds that we can show others.

The wounds come from our stripping ourselves of ourselves, and opening our individual lives and life together to God's healing process. These are the wounds that come from living in God's gifts of faith, hope and charity with everything that we are and everything that God is calling us to be. They are the wounds that come from humble service, loving others as ourselves and faithfully living our lives to the fullest in the God's abiding and life-changing presence. These are the wounds that many people are so desperately seeking, to know that Christ is fully risen. If people can touch our wounds, they can then accept their own. For we all have wounds, so that we might understand each other and believe.